Social media has become pervasive in our daily lives and is overtaking the more traditional forms of communication. Businesses have realized that Social Media is more than just socially connecting and are therefore attempting to leverage it as a critical customer facing communication channel. Service organizations by default, have the most interactions with customers and need to take a leading role within their company to effectively manage the...  Continue Reading..

In my conversations with field service leaders, one of the most pressing issues coming up again and again is the quest to find – and attract - new talent. As a woman covering the field service space, I’ve of course noticed how male-skewed the profession is – and I’ve thought many times about how broadening the appeal of the job to women would make a significant impact for companies struggling in their recruiting and...  Continue Reading..

Maximizing service profitability comes from tightly linking the technician to the machine (equipment to be serviced) in a holistic way with artificial intelligence (AI) that is tightly integrated into the business. To maximize service profits, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform needs to be well thought out to maximize technician efficiency on every visit through a predictive maintenance program. The IoT platform is a piece that cannot stand on...  Continue Reading..

If you’ve ever found yourself reading about how AI is the next big thing in field service and felt like you wanted to run in the other direction, I’ve got some good news for you. I was reading today in this article about Noodle.ai, a San Francisco-based startup that provides enterprise AI-as-a-service.  Continue Reading..

I am happy to be contributing a new short series I’m calling "Stories From The Field Service Frontline" that I hope you will find both humorous and informative. These are true stories from actual service calls placed by customers and tell the tales of what the field technician experienced. I hope you enjoy them and encourage you to share your own stories with us!  Continue Reading..

Service organizations with 150 field technicians (or less) can have the same difficulties delivering service as larger enterprise companies. However, due to their smaller size, they have limited resources in critical areas; financial, personnel, expertise, versus larger competitors. So how does a service company of this size not only stay competitive but thrive in today’s marketplace?  Continue Reading..

With the hyper-focus that exists on customer experience among field service organizations today, I think there’s a misperception that mastering customer experience equals delivering perfect service. While there’s nothing wrong with aspiring to deliver excellent – even perfect – experiences, it is simply not realistic that it will occur 100 percent of the time.  Continue Reading..

Technology isn’t new – it’s what makes things new. It’s like that old BASF television commercial – “we don’t make the products you buy; we make the products you buy, better.” Well, for customer support in general, and the services industry in particular, technology is the primary thing that makes the services you sell better – and more profitable, too. But, there’s more to customer...  Continue Reading..